Happy Heart Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We celebrated this romantic holiday by getting a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, some yummy red wine, and a delicious chocolate, hazelnut, mocha cake for dessert. I won the cake at a work fundraiser for United Way and all I can say is Mmmm....it was yummy and quite delicious. All of my favorites combined - chocolate, hazelnut, and mocha.

We even gave the girls a special Valentine's Day dinner (mixed some canned dog food with their usual dry kibble). They went nuts and licked their bowls clean. No dessert for them, but instead, we got them some new toys. Yes, we spoil them, but they are so darn cute and they deserve it!

Instead of cooking a fancy dinner or going out to an expensive restaurant, here is our yummy dinner...it was yummy

our dessert - chocolate hazelnut mocha cake

four layers of chocolate yumminess

A present for Sally

Sally and Lucy's special Valentine's Day dinner

Valentine's Day presents for our girls - squeaky toys in the shape of sweethearts - TOO CUTE!

Sally and Lucy fighting over their new toys

Yummy Food

Here are some of the yummy new recipes I made this week...

Pioneer Woman Recipe - homemade cinnamon rolls with maple frosting

*I was so proud of these cinnamon rolls. It was the first time I have ever baked anything from scratch that required me to use yeast and let it rise. And I even made the frosting from scratch. WOW. I am feeling like a true Martha Stewart

Chicken Parmesan

Pizza - dough from Trader Joes
Toppings: pizza sauce, dry Italian salami, roma tomatoes, artichokes, green peppers, red onions, mozzarella cheese

Pizza - dough from Trader Joe's

Toppings: basil pesto sauce, chicken artichokes, roma tomatoes, spinach, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella

Pioneer Woman Recipe - bacon onion cheddar biscuits

Sally's Debut at the Dog Park

It was a rare sunny winter day and we decided to take the girls to the dog park. Now this wasn't just any dog park outing, but it was Sally's FIRST time going to the dog park and it was Lucy's first time back to the dog park since last fall. Lucy seemed to know what was going on as I packed their bag with towels, wipes, leashes, and dog treats. She whined with anticipation and as soon as I opened the front door, she sprinted to the car. Sally, on the other hand, didn't know what was going on. This was the first time she rode in the car without being in her doggie crate and thankfully, she wasn't squirmy. She just laid down on the backseat...meanwhile, Lucy was drooling down the side of the window while she eagerly sniffed the fresh air out the window. As we pulled up to the dog park, Lucy whined and could hardly contain herself.

As soon as we got to the off-leash area, Lucy took off sprinting, as she usually does. Lucy took off to check out the 100+ dogs at Ft. Steilacoom while Sally didn't know what to think. She was overwhelmed by all the sights and smells. We thought Sally would sprint off in excitement and eagerly chase after all the doggies because after all, that is what she does at home. She sprints up and down the stairs, sprints in and out of the house, and chases after Lucy. Sally is fearless and fiesty. We thought the dog park woudl be no different. But, I think she didn't quite feel comfortable with all the big dogs, so she stayed close by our side and desperately tried to stay close to Lucy's side. However, Lucy had another idea...she was excited to have a "break" from her little sister and could care less where Sally was. LOL!

One positive thing we learned from the dog park outing was that Sally is starting to take to her training. She does recognize her name...a few times we called her name and she did come running to us.

We will have to try this again and continue to socialize Sally with other dogs. While Sally is clearly comfortable with Lucy, she is still very much tentative with other dogs, which is normal considering Sally is only 12 weeks old.

Here is a video clip of when we first arrived at Ft. Steilacoom Dog Park...

Sally's 12-Week Vet Appointment

Today, we had Sally's 12-week vet appointment where she received a couple of her vaccine boosters. When she arrived at our house, Sally weighed 10 lbs and was 8-weeks-old. Now after a month living with us, she weighs in at 20 lbs! She is a growing girl! The vet cleared her to go on daily walks, go to the dog park, and socialize with other dogs. Now that she is vaccinated, we can begin her leash training and get her used to playing with other dogs.

The first few weeks were a rough adjustment - for Lucy, Sally, and us. But now we are really into a routine. Some updates/milestones for our little Sally Brown:

• Sally is able to sleep overnight for 6-8 hours. If we go to bed between 10-11 pm, most nights she can sleep until 6 AM without a midnight potty break.
• Sally is getting good at the housetraining. She rarely has accidents inside and when she does, it is usually our fault (we didn't recognize her signs - pacing, whining, etc).
• Thanks to Lucy's lead, Sally is starting to respond to verbal commands. She looks at us when we say her name, when we say "time to go" she follows Lucy's lead and goes into her crate, and she is starting to whine and pace when she has to go out.
• Sally's personality is almost completely opposite of Lucy's. Sally is fearless and fiesty while Lucy is reserved and tentative. Sally will sprint up and down the stairs without fear of tumbling and slipping. Sally will take a running leap at Lucy to play with her, despite their dramatic size difference.
• Sally loves Lucy. Sally loves to snuggle up next to Lucy and if given the choice to snuggle on the couch or bed with us or snuggle on the dog bed next to Lucy, Sally will always choose Lucy. It is very cute to see the two of them bond to each other.
• Sally is mischievious and will get into anything left out. She loves to sneak into the laundry bin and chew on sweaty socks or our shoes. NOTE: Lucy never had this tendency.
• We love Sally, but we are constantly reminded how great of a puppy Lucy was and how well-behaved Lucy is. Hopefully Sally will follow Lucy's great example.

First Tennis Tournament of the Year

This weekend was the first tennis tournament of 2011. I entered the 4.0 Women's Singles Draw and the 4.0 Women's Doubles Draw. My first singles match was scheduled for late on Friday night. Unfortunately for me, the tournament was running behind and instead of starting my match at 9:30 PM as we were supposed to, I went onto the court at 10:30 PM. After a long week of work, I wasn't quite prepared to be playing tennis so late...this was past my normal bed time! I got my bootie kicked...so much so that I don't even want to post my scores. All I can say was that I was extremely frustrated and went to bed very angry.

Well, Saturday was a new day and I had two doubles matches and I hoped to play better. My partner, Vicki, and I played really good and beat our first opponents and then we played our second match really late (10 PM) and made some errors and couldn't dig ourselves out of the hole. We lost.

On Sunday, we had our last doubles match and won, which placed us narrowly in first place. We got a trophy!! Woo hoo! I also got to play my consolation singles match against a good friend. We both hit the crap out of the ball, had some great rallies, but I came up a little short and I lost.

It was a good weekend in that I got a lot of good tennis, but I was disappointed in my singles game and a good reminder that I need to get in better shape, need to improve my endurance, and need to improve my consistency/reduce my errors. If I do, I think I will be pretty decent at singles. I enjoy singles because it is a better workout and a good challenge, but I lose A LOT and it has been very frustrating. Tennis is a mental game and I hope I can improve my inner-dialogue this season into more postive rather than negative.

New Year's Resolution Update - Week #1 Success

For my first week into 2011, I am doing pretty good on three of my four New Year's Resolutions.

#1 - Cook or bake at least one new recipe per week

This week, I made creamy chicken rice casserole, crockpot beef pot roast, beef carbonnade, and bacon onion cheddar biscuits. Yes, that is right, I am an OVERACHIEVER. The creamy chicken rice casserole was from one of my Cooking Light cookbooks and super easy. It is a make ahead casserole and needs to sit in the fridge overnight, which is nice because when you get home from work, you can just pop it into the oven. I had never made beef pot roast before and heard it was super easy. My local grocery store was having a sale on meat, so I stocked up and found the recipe from one of my Cooking Light cookbooks. Another super easy recipe...marinade the beef overnight and then put in the crockpot, along with veggies and 10 hours later, voila! Pure tastiness. Beef carbonnade was easy to make and I got to use my new Dutch Oven. This recipe was very tasty and similar to beef stroganoff, but it was cooked in beer, so had a unique flavor. The last new recipe this week - the bacon onion cheddar biscuits - were a recipe from Pioneer Woman. She does not disappoint. This recipe was easy to make and delicious to eat. All of the recipes make great leftovers. Yummy!

#2 - Achieve weight loss goal (lose 10 lbs)

I worked out EVERY day this week - woo hoo for me! Between tennis, strength training with my personal trainer, and cardio on my own, I was able to burn some serious calories this week. In order to achieve my goal weight this year, my biggest challenge will not be the working out part. It will be the food part. I eat healthy, but for me, it is all about portion control. If I can tackle this on a consistent basis, I think I will be successful at this Resolution.

#3 - Update the blog at least once per week

Having some time today, I was able to complete three posts and depending on how late I can stay up, I may manage to get a few more!

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! I have many hopes and goals for 2011, so here are some of my New Year's Resolutions.

#1 - cook or bake at least one new recipe per week

#2 - achieve weight loss goal (lose that final 10 lbs!)

#3 - update the blog at least once per week

#4 - read at least 1-2 books per month

Let's see how long I am able to keep these...stay tuned.